Texas Roadhouse's butchers show their stuff in meat cutting competition

Sheridan Hendrix @sheridan120

Thursday

Sep 12, 2019 at 6:50 PMSep 12, 2019 at 11:30 PM

NEWARK — The Lou & Gib Reese Ice Arena: home of the Newark High School Generals, the Denison University Big Red and ... the Texas Roadhouse annual meat cutting competition?

For about a decade, Texas Roadhouse meat cutters from across Ohio and West Virginia have competed at the arena to show off their skills, as well as for a chance to qualify for the semifinals of the restaurant chain's national meat cutting competition.

Fourteen butchers in the region took to the ice Thursday for this year's competition.

No, really. They compete on the ice.

>>Photos: Meat-cutting competition

The arena, set to a chilly 35 degrees, is similar to the walk-in coolers each butcher works in eight hours a day, said Keith Richards, Texas Roadhouse regional product coach. (Mats are placed behind the work stations so competitors don't slip.)

Each participant receives about 40 pounds of beef to cut — a sirloin, a filet and a rib-eye. With an hour on the clock, butchers cut the meat into as many steaks as possible.

Meat cutters are judged on quality, yield and speed. Whoever yields the most steaks with the highest quality cut in the least amount of time wins.

"Our meat cutters are the most important people in our stores," said Neal Niklaus, Texas Roadhouse regional market partner. "When you order your steak, you know it was cut fresh that morning by one of these guys."

In a time when many restaurant chains are looking for ways to cut costs, Richards said, meat cutting has become a lost art.

"Anybody can go in there and start cutting steaks off," Richards said. "But these guys are always reading, developing new techniques. They know the impact the steak they just cut will make three cuts later."

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The skill and precision that each butcher puts into making steaks is exactly why they celebrate the craft at this competition each year, Richards said.

With a sound of the arena's buzzer, the butchers were off.

Heavy metal music blared through the arena's loudspeakers as each meat cutter carefully surveyed their beef, looking for the best cuts to make.

An array of rulers, tape measures, mallets, knives and scales littered the meat-cutting stations. Each butcher approached the craft differently. Some measured out each cut carefully with a ruler; others judged their cuts by eye and trimmed away as needed. But everyone worked with precision.

Paring away the smallest slivers of fat or muscle can separate good steaks from great steaks, Richards said.

As the butchers finished, their products were carried off the ice and across the hall to the judges' room. Judges measured and weighed each competitor's steaks, comparing each cut to the company's specs for height, length, weight and fat content.

"Every single aspect of every single steak is judged," Richards said.

After time was up, Richards and other coaches walked each butcher through their mistakes and explained how to improve their cuts.

Close to 450 pounds of beef were cut and judged Thursday. All of the steaks will be used at the company's Newark location, but next year Niklaus hopes to donate everything to a food pantry or a community event.

The top two meat cutters won cash prizes. They will also compete in the semifinals in December in hopes of advancing to the nationals in March in Nashville, Tennessee, for $20,000.

This year's top butcher was Joey Hathaway, a 20-year veteran butcher from Stow, near Akron.

Hathaway, who has competed in Newark every year, said being a butcher is all about self-integrity.

"There are long days and there are short days, but as long as we get the work done, it's rewarding," he said. "The only downside is that it's cold."

Despite the cold, Richards said butchering is a job he and all of the competitors are passionate about.

"For these guys," he said, "meat cutting is truly a way of life."

shendrix@dispatch.com

@sheridan120

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